Sparse Array Applications for Small Satellites

DARPA desires to develop innovative approaches for using a sparse array of small satellites to sense radio frequency signals. During our Phase I effort our Progeny Systems Corporation and University of Hawaii team intends to develop a technique to resolve the dynamic position problem of individual nodes in the array using precision timing synchronization. Additionally we intend to develop a technique to correlate signals across multiple elements of the RF receiver array, develop a distributed onboard processing architecture across multiple satellite nodes to minimize earth station receiver data bandwidth requirements, and to develop inter-satellite and ground to satellite link communication architectures. During Phase II we intend to test and demonstrate our design concepts using CubeSats launched into orbit as a secondary payload in an Orbital Sciences Pegasus vehicle. The CubeSat project is an international collaboration of over 40 universities, high schools, and private firms developing picosatellites containing scientific, private, and government payloads. The basic CubeSat design is a ten centimeter cube with mass of up to one kilogram.